I wrapped up my Toxic Spill adventure yesterday so I'm pretty much done with that area now unless I want to farm Ultimate Polluted Charms, or need a mouse from there for a treasure map. Kind of interesting how the crude pollutinum and refining pollutinum works now. The mice drop a lot more than they used to, so it fills up a lot more quickly, but then you have to switch your barrel to refining and the mice won't drop any at that time. If you FTC a mouse and it steals points or gold, it will also destroy crude pollutinum in your barrel.

Been doing lots of Rift Stalker treasure maps. Those have very nice rewards.

I think the days of Ronza bringing traps that are exciting for top level players are dead and gone...all she's brought in the years past that was attractive to higher-level players was charms and upgrade kits, and this year is no exception.

I like the kit, but I've got this problem where I don't even have the Temporal Turbine Trap yet, lol. I'm debating if I should buy the kit and just wait for the day when I get the trap, or if I should pass and not "waste" my money on something I may never really use.

Stocked up on last minute charms and crafting materials from Ronza. If we somehow magically finish our Chrome treasure map before she leaves tomorrow, I'll go buy another one because I thought this map was pretty fun. Of course, they announced today that they nerfed the map we're on by removing 4/5 mice we had on it. Go figure.

I don't know if you all heard or read the last FBF, but they are making some VERY interesting changes to the ranking system. I guess they don't think highly enough of themselves because they created the Archduke/duchess rank to be the last in the game, but MH players are threatening to max it out. So not only are they adding on new levels, they're also tweaking the length of time you spend on each level. I don't think it'll affect any of us, but it's possible that once they release the new ranking system, somebody may automatically jump a level.

Season 5 relic hunter treasure maps/chests begin August 15 (as of now, may be tweaked a bit).

Moussu Picchu is hopefully coming in late August/early September. The boss mouse for this area may be my new favorite design. If they stick him on a t-shirt, I'll buy it.

I loaded up on charms and crafting materials as well. I didn't see anything of interest in the traps and the skins. I'm going to focus on gold farming for the traps I don't have and the higher level costs. So maps and finishing up in the labyrinth, fort rox, furoma rift, and the Burroughs rift.

Soooo... I can't really say any particular order on any of them, but I'll toss out some thoughts that might help you decide.

Fort Rox doesn't really do much one way or another. Eventually they plan to expand Law areas all the way up as they've done with all the other trap types, but last I heard, there are no immediate plans.

Rift areas are also on hold. They will do more Rift areas eventually, but not for a while.

That brings us to the Labyrinth. The two benefits of completing this area is that Moussu Picchu (and the following Archduke/duchess area) will tie directly into it because it follows the story arc along with the Laby traps. Plus getting the Shadow and Arcane traps will make Fort Rox go REALLY fast.

So if you're limited on time and wanting to keep up with the primary storyline, then probably the Laby is your best bet. If you're like me and you want to focus on one area at a time, I'd finish up the Rift areas and get them out of the way, and then hit the Laby. Fort Rox can be done intermittently with treasure maps and such.

I don't know how much gold you have, but you might check the Marketplace. I'm guessing the price of the two pieces has come down since Ronza's visit and they weren't THAT expensive in the first place. Then you can hang onto the portal until the egg hunt. Make sure you have plenty of cheese ready to go. By the way, this is a nice area for passive hunting, so if you need to go offline for a while, this is a good area to do so.

Frift: 1 more battery

The batteries are a nicety. I've caught 19 Ascended Elders with eight and nine batteries.

How's your catch rate in the BWRift? If it's good, you can skip this one and save yourself a lot of gold.

The last two areas, yeah, those will take a while. I say pick one and dedicate yourself to it. Neither area is particularly nice to passively play in. I mean you can count your hunts and make sure you time it correctly when you go offline to make sure you don't waste cheese, but even so, it doesn't always set up that nicely. For the record, I think I'm the only NarniaWebber with the Temporal Turbine. I just got lucky with the drops. I'm nowhere near the Timesplit Dissonance trap though, and I'm taking a break to work on Chrome maps and then probably some Relic Hunter maps.

Watching Jacob's art FBF was interesting. He's tweaking the level shields and did Novice through Legendary today and plans to do more shields on the next FBF. It'll be interesting to see what they decide on for future levels.

I got a Relic Hunter Theme Scrap out of my last treasure chest, which brings my total up to 6. I'm 2/3 of the way there. How many years has the relic hunter theme been out?

I think this year will be the first year I won't be all gung ho on getting the new special base. I'll certainly get it eventually, but I really want to finish up the BWRift and get the trap. Moussu Picchu will be out soon and I don't like having more than one area going at the same time.

^^ I always have multiple areas going on at the same time, but I suppose that is the difference between a low-ranked Archduchess and a high-ranked one...you've been playing for so much longer so even though we are fairly equal in terms of access to stuff, I always feel like I am perpetually playing catch-up, lol!

Got a Sandblasted Metal to drop from a Warmonger yesterday, so that was fun. Working on maps, working on the Laby, working on the BWRift. Such is life!

How's your catch rate in the BWRift? If it's good, you can skip this one and save yourself a lot of gold.

Moderate, but not great. Took me a week or more to get through to catch a single acolyte mouse.

The last two areas, yeah, those will take a while. I say pick one and dedicate yourself to it. Neither area is particularly nice to passively play in. I mean you can count your hunts and make sure you time it correctly when you go offline to make sure you don't waste cheese, but even so, it doesn't always set up that nicely.

I was figuring I needed the next two traps in the laby for the upcoming new area. With my luck with the Warmonger loot drops, I've been seriously dreading this venture. I went back to the laby for the moment. I'm doing a fealty run.

Gymmie wrote:^^ I always have multiple areas going on at the same time, but I suppose that is the difference between a low-ranked Archduchess and a high-ranked one...you've been playing for so much longer so even though we are fairly equal in terms of access to stuff, I always feel like I am perpetually playing catch-up, lol!

I don't think that's it. The one area of DLU I've always had is trap drops. Now, that's going to end some day and then you and Bee will probably go flying past me because you two play smarter than I do. Seriously though, I think the only two things you need are the Temporal Turbine Trap and the Timesplit Dissonance trap right? If that's the case, I'm only one trap ahead of you.

Kat wrote:

Frift: 1 more battery

The batteries are a nicety. I've caught 19 Ascended Elders with eight and nine batteries.

I have caught a grand total of zero so far.

I do bust out my good charms the first time I go for a mouse. In this case, it was the Ultimate Lucky Power Charm. I also had the Ultimate Charm in reserve in case the ULPC didn't work, but it did.

fantasia_kitty wrote:The one area of DLU I've always had is trap drops. Now, that's going to end some day and then you and Bee will probably go flying past me because you two play smarter than I do. Seriously though, I think the only two things you need are the Temporal Turbine Trap and the Timesplit Dissonance trap right? If that's the case, I'm only one trap ahead of you.

Some months ago I made myself a list of weapons that I own or don't own. There are several that I don't own because I have smashed them and upgraded them, and as I'm not a collector, I haven't made new copies of the old ones. Then there are those that were LE before my time, which I can never get, and most of those are weaker anyway than the newer ones that I own.

With me, there are four weapons missing. Two are those that I need, the Temporal Turbine Trap and the Timesplit Dissonance trap. I'll work on getting those eventually.

The others are upgrades that I would like, but are less important - the S.U.P.E.R. Scum Scrubber and the Chrome MonstroBot. I don't want to spend resources on upgrading those for a while, and at the moment I haven't even got the necessary resources.

I'm happy with running around, so I might even go to the new areas when they come up, before having got these weapons. I'll probably go for the new FW mouse, too, one catch to tick him off, but no rush to bronze him. I'm working on easier bronzes first.

It occurred to me the other day that it's time to start thinking about saving Mino keys for Halloween, not using them...where has time gone

I'm only just now working on my 10th AA...this area will be a grind but actually I'm not in any hurry because they said there wouldn't be any new Rift areas for awhile, and the area is self-contained so it's not like I need the trap for hunting in other areas. So, I may try and split my free time between here and the Laby and try and get at least two Mino keys ready to go.

Gymfan, I'm glad you feel like you're always playing catch up too. I feel like there's never enough time to complete an area before they release another. And you always have way more weekly points than me.

I've given up ever having the most up to date traps. I think the only top traps I have are the Chrome Monsterbot and the School of Sharks trap. Unless the Event Horizon is the top Arcane trap? Right now I would be content to get the Minotaur Base and the Clockwork base. Good luck with your venture Bee!

What I really want is all the Easter Eggs but I'm afraid the new warpath mouse may have dashed my hopes if he has an egg this year. I'm alternating between Train rides and the Sunken City since I've never caught the Magmatic Golum mouse and I want the Deep Deep, however many Deeps Egg. By the way, how many Magmatic Chrystal Charms are recommended. I've never even attracted that mouse.

And is the Horntracker website down for all time? I haven't been able to get it to work for about a month, on Firefox or Chrome.